Curiosity is a car-sized, nuclear-powered rover that landed in Gale Crater in 2012 using the then-untested sky-crane maneuver. Its formal name is the Mars Science Laboratory, and it carries a full geochemistry lab: drills, ovens, spectrometers, and a laser that vaporizes rock from 20 feet away.
Since 2014 it has been climbing Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high mound of layered sediment in the crater's center. Each layer is a page of Martian climate history, read in order as the rover ascends.
Curiosity settled the biggest question about early Mars: yes, it was habitable. It found an ancient lakebed with liquid water, key chemical ingredients for life, and organic molecules preserved in rock. Perseverance's hunt for actual biosignatures builds directly on that foundation.
Key Facts
- Landed
- August 6, 2012, Gale Crater
- Power
- Radioisotope generator (plutonium)
- Size
- About 1 ton, car-sized
- Key finding
- Ancient Mars was habitable
- Current work
- Climbing Mount Sharp's sediment layers
Timeline
November 2011
Launch from Cape Canaveral
August 2012
Sky-crane landing in Gale Crater, 'seven minutes of terror'
2013
Drilled samples confirm an ancient habitable lake
2014
Reaches the base of Mount Sharp
Next up
Continued ascent through younger rock layers
Latest Curiosity News
Curiosity Sees Martian Sulfur Up Close
This close-up view shows fragments of sulfur crystals — the first ever seen on the Red Planet. The crystals were found after NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover happened to drive over a rock and crush it on May 30, 2024. Several
Curiosity
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4934-4940: In the Land of the Polygons
Written by William Farrand, Senior Research Scientist, Space Science Institute Earth planning date: Friday, June 26, 2026 There were two planning cycles over this span of sols. The Monday planning took place with Curiosi
Curiosity
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4927–4933: Let’s Drive to That Smooth Area
By Susanne P. Schwenzer, Professor of Planetary Mineralogy at The Open University, UK Earth planning date: Thursday, June 18, 2026 In the area Curiosity is currently exploring, the science team has mapped several areas w
Curiosity
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4920-4926: Surveying the Bands
Written by William Farrand, Senior Research Scientist, Space Science Institute Earth planning date: Friday, June 12, 2026 Rather than going from stage to stage at a music festival to hear different bands playing differen
Curiosity
Curiosity Blog: Sols 4913-4919: Planetary explorers, freewheeling to the Yardang unit!
Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, APXS Strategic Planner and Payload Uplink/Downlink Lead, University of New Brunswick, Canada Earth planning day: Friday, June 5th, 2026 In a very broad sense, Curiosity has two mode
Curiosity
NASA’s Perseverance, Curiosity Panoramas Capture Two Sides of Mars
NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers have captured two 360-degree landscapes that highlight how the missions are revealing details of the Red Planet’s formation, watery past, and potential for life. Located 2,345 mil
Perseverance
Curiosity
NASA’s Curiosity Finds Organic Molecules Never Seen Before on Mars
After years of lab work, the results are in: A rock that NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover drilled and analyzed in 2020 includes the most diverse collection of organic molecules ever found on the Red Planet. Of the 21 carbon-c
Curiosity
Facts last reviewed 2026-07-11. Official mission page: science.nasa.gov